Editing Namu Myōhō Renge Kyō (section)

=== Nichiren ===
[[File:NICHIREN_SHŌNIN_ICHIDAI_ZUE_1858_Mandala.jpg|right|thumb|Nichiren bowing before the [[Gohonzon]], a calligraphic mandala depicting the Daimoku]]
The Tendai ''Lotus Sutra'' revivalist [[Nichiren]] (1222-1282) is known today as the greatest promoter of the daimoku in the history of [[Buddhism in Japan|Japanese Buddhism]]. Nichiren saw the repetition of the daimoku as the supreme and highest practice, since the title of the sutra contained the entire [[Buddhism|Buddhadharma]] and the seed of [[Buddhahood]] itself.<ref name=":1" /> Nichiren frequently quotes passages from the ''Lotus Sutra'' in which the Buddha declared the sutra to be his highest teaching, such as "among those sutras the ''Lotus'' is the foremost!", and "this sutra is king of the sutras."<ref>{{cite book |url=https://www.nichirenlibrary.org/en/lsoc/toc/ |title=The Lotus Sutra and its Opening and Closing Sutras |translator-last=Watson |translator-first=Burton Dewitt |chapter=The Teacher of the Law |translator-link=Burton Watson}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |url=https://www.nichirenlibrary.org/en/lsoc/toc/ |title=The Lotus Sutra and its Opening and Closing Sutras |translator-last=Watson |translator-first=Burton Dewitt |chapter=Former Affairs of the Bodhisattva Medicine King |translator-link=Burton Watson}}</ref> Nichiren writes in his ''Kanjinhonzonshō'':<ref>{{Cite web |last=Senchu |first=MURANO |year=2003 |title=Two Nichiren Texts |url=https://www.bdkamerica.org/product/two-nichiren-texts/ |access-date=2025-03-24 |series=Numata Center for Buddhist Translation and Research |publisher=BDK |page=88 |language=en-US}}</ref><blockquote>The bodhisattva practices cause the virtues of the Buddha. The practices and virtues of Sakyamuni, the World-honored One, are contained in the Five Characters: '''''Myōhō Renge Kyō'''''. When we keep these Five Characters, we shall automatically receive the merits that the Buddha obtained by his practices.</blockquote>Nichiren also writes that the daimoku has the following meanings:<ref>Senchu, MURANO (2003). ''Two Nichiren Texts''. Numata Center for Buddhist Translation and Research. BDK. p. 103. Retrieved 2025-03-24.</ref><blockquote>1) the name of the combination of the Dharma and its simile, 2) the name of the reality of all things, 3) the name of the teaching of the One Vehicle, 4) the name of faith in the Original Buddha, and 5) the name of the supremacy of the teaching.</blockquote>According to Stone, who draws on Takagi Yutaka's work, Nichiren's daimoku practice was influenced by three key elements: earlier Heian-period daimoku practices, medieval Tendai doctrine (as seen in texts like the ''Shuzenji-ketsu''), and the nembutsu tradition popularized by [[Hōnen]]. Nichiren synthesized these influences to create a unique and exclusive practice centered on the daimoku, which became the core of his new school of Buddhism.<ref name=":0" /> Nichiren gives a detailed interpretation of the daimoku in his [[Ongi kuden#The meaning of Nam(u) Myōhō Renge Kyō|''Ongi kuden'']] and in other works. His interpretations are influenced by the writings of [[Zhiyi|Tiantai Zhiyi]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Masatoshi |first=Ueki |title=Gender equality in Buddhism. |publisher=Peter Lang |year=2001 |isbn=0820451339 |pages=136, 159–161}}</ref><ref name=":1" /> 

For Nichiren, reciting the daimoku was equivalent to reciting the entire ''Lotus Sutra''. He believed that the merit and enlightenment of the Buddha would be "spontaneously transferred" to those who embraced and chanted the daimoku. This would erase their evil [[Karma in Buddhism|karma]] and allow them to attain Buddhahood in this very body.<ref name=":1" /> [[Jacqueline Stone]] writes that "Nichiren stressed salvation through faith rather than through meditative insight, and this position also represents orthodoxy for the major Nichiren denominations today."<ref name=":1" />  However, Nichiren also held that the practice of daimoku recitation could purify the mind and lead to insight. For example, in Becoming a Buddha in One Lifetime (Issho jobutsu sho), Nichiren writes:<blockquote>Even right now, the deluded mind in a single thought-moment of ignorance is an unpolished mirror. But if one polishes it, it will surely become the bright mirror that is the true [[Tathātā|suchness]] of the Dharma nature. Profoundly arouse the mind of faith and day and night, morning and evening polish it without neglect. How should one polish it? Simply chanting Namu-myōhō-renge-kyō is what is called polishing.<ref name=":1" />  </blockquote>Nichiren's ''[[Kanjin honzon shō]]'', one of his most significant works, established the doctrinal foundation for chanting the daimoku as a practice of "mind contemplation" (觀心) suitable for the final Dharma age. In this text, Nichiren taught that the awakened Śākyamuni Buddha's accumulated practices and resulting merits are fully contained within the five characters of the daimoku, and are immediately transferred to the practitioner upon chanting. Consequently, one can achieve the merits of the six perfections without pursuing each practice individually. The ''Kanjin honzon shō'' also introduced the concept of the “great maṇḍala” ([[Gohonzon|daimandara]]), a calligraphic representation of the Lotus assembly inspired by esoteric iconography. Nichiren created over 120 examples of this maṇḍala, in which the daimoku is prominently inscribed down the center, flanked by the names of Śākyamuni and [[Prabhutaratna|Many Jewels Buddha]], reflecting the scene described in the Lotus Sūtra where these Buddhas sit together in the jeweled stūpa. Nichiren taught that through faith in the Lotus Sūtra and the chanting of the daimoku, the devotee "enters" this maṇḍala, thereby participating in the enlightened reality of the primordial Buddha.<ref>Stone, J. "Nichiren", in ''Brill's Encyclopedia of Buddhism'', vol. II: Lives (pp. 1076-1087).</ref>

Nichiren's emphasis on daimoku as an exclusive practice paralleled (and may have been influenced by) the development of [[Hōnen|Hōnen's]] exclusive ''[[Nianfo|nembutsu]]''. Although Tendai and other Buddhist traditions included recitation-based practices (usually based on nembutsu, [[Mantra|mantras]] or whole sutras, like the ''[[Heart Sutra]]'' or ''[[Amitābha Sūtra|Amitabha Sutra]]''), Nichiren elevated the chanting of the daimoku to an exclusive and universal method of attaining enlightenment. Nichiren claimed that the daimoku was the ''only'' method to happiness and salvation suited for the [[Mappo|age of Dharma decline]], while other practices were useless.<ref name=":4">Stone, Jacqueline. “Rebuking the Enemies of the Lotus: Nichirenist Exclusivism in Historical Perspective.” ''Japanese Journal of Religious Studies'', vol. 21, no. 2/3, 1994, pp. 231–59. ''JSTOR'', <nowiki>http://www.jstor.org/stable/30233527</nowiki>. Accessed 22 Mar. 2025.</ref> As such, mixing the daimoku with other practices (as the Buddhists of the Heian period had done) was seen by Nichiren as being “like mixing rice with excrement.”<ref name=":4" /> This exclusive stance has been seen as intolerant and radical by some modern scholars, but it was actually a common feature of [[Kamakura Buddhism]], and can be seen in [[Hōnen]] for example.<ref name=":4" /> What was unique to Nichiren however was the direct confrontational stance which he took against other sects (which was the basis for the sect's ''[[shakubuku]]'' [[proselytism]]).<ref>Stone, Jacqueline. “Rebuking the Enemies of the Lotus: Nichirenist Exclusivism in Historical Perspective.” ''Japanese Journal of Religious Studies'', vol. 21, no. 2/3, 1994, pp. 231–59. ''JSTOR'', <nowiki>http://www.jstor.org/stable/30233527</nowiki>. Accessed 22 Mar. 2025.</ref> 

Within the early Nichiren community, interpretations of the daimoku practice varied, with some followers viewing it as an expression of faith, while others understood it as a meditative discipline or a means of achieving worldly benefits. His doctrine integrated elements of Tendai philosophy, esoteric Buddhism, and contemporary concerns about the age of mappō, which contributed to its wide appeal.<ref name=":0" />